A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF WHAT BECAME OF THE BOYS — REFUSED
PERMISSION TO GO HOME — A REFERENCE TO CAPT. WIRTZ — RETURN HOME AT THE END OF
THE WAR.
In may interest some one to know more of many who have been
mentioned at different times in this book, and I will proceed to enlighten
them.
George W. Hendryx came to the regiment in March, 1865, when
we were near Goldsboro, N. C. He says that after running away from Andersonville
at the time of the discovery of a break in which all intended to get away in
the summer of 1864, he traveled over one hundred and fifty miles and was
finally re-taken by bushwhackers. He represented himself as an officer of the
17th Michigan Infantry, escaped from Columbia, S. C., and was sent to that
place and put with officers in the prison there, changing his name so as not to
be found out as having escaped from Andersonville. In due time he was exchanged
with a batch of other officers and went home North. After a short time he
joined his regiment and company for duty. He was both delighted and surprised
to see me, as he supposed of course I had died in Andersonville, it having been
so reported to him at the North. He did valiant service until the war was over,
which soon happened. He went home with the regiment and was mustered out of
service, since when I have never seen or heard of him for a certainty. Think
that he went to California.
Sergt. Wm. B. Rowe was exchanged in March, 1865, but never joined
the regiment. His health was ruined to a certain extent from his long
confinement. Is still alive, however, and resides at Dansville, Mich.
Sergt. Bullock was also exchanged at the same time, but
never did service thereafter. He is now an inmate of a Michigan insane asylum,
and has been for some years, whether from the effects of prison life I know
not, but should presume it is due to his sufferings there. His was a
particularly sad case. He was taken sick in the early days of Andersonville and
was sick all the time while in that place, a mere walking and talking skeleton.
There is no doubt in my mind l that his insanity resulted from his long imprisonment.
E. P. Sanders arrived home in Michigan in April, 1865, and
made me a visit at Jackson that Summer. He was the only one of all my comrades
in prison that I came in contact with, who fully regained health, or apparently
was in good health. He was a particularly strong and healthy man, and is now
engaged in farming near Lansing, Michigan.
Lieut. Wm. H. Robinson, who was removed from Belle Isle,
from our mess, it having been discovered that he was an officer instead of an
orderly sergeant, was exchanged early in 1864, from Richmond, and immediately
joined his regiment, doing duty all the time thereafter. Soon after my escape
and while with company "A," a note was handed me from Capt. Robinson,
my old friend, he having been promoted to a captaincy. The note informed me
that he was only a few miles away, and asked me to come and see him that day.
You may rest assured I was soon on the road, and that day had the pleasure of
taking my dinner with him. He was on his general's staff, and I dined at head-quarters,
much to my discomfiture, not being up with such distinguished company. We had a
good visit, I remember, and I went to camp at night well satisfied with my
ride. Told me that a pipe which I engraved and presented to him on Belle Isle
was still in his possession, and always should be. Was a favorite with every
one, and a fine looking officer. He is now a resident of Sterling, Whiteside
Co., Ill. Is a banker, hardware dealer, one of the City Fathers, and withal a
prominent citizen. It was lucky he was an officer and taken away from us on
Belle Isle, for he would undoubtedly have died at Andersonville, being of
rather a delicate frame and constitution.
My good old friend Battese, I regret to say, I have never
seen or heard of since he last visited me in the Marine Hospital at Savannah.
Have written many letters and made many inquiries, but to no effect. He was so
reticent while with us in the prison, that we did not learn enough of him to
make inquiries since then effective. Although for many months I was in his
immediate presence, he said nothing of where he lived, his circumstances, or
anything else. I only know that his name was Battese, that he belonged to a
Minnesota regiment and was a noble fellow. I don't know of a man in the world I
would rather see to-day than him, and I hope some day when I have got rich out
of this book (if that time should ever come,) to go to Minnesota and look him
up. There are many Andersonville survivors who must remember the tall Indian,
and certainly I shall, as long as life shall last.
Michael Hoare tells his own story farther along, in answer
to a letter written him for information regarding his escape from the Savannah
hospital. Mike, at the close of the war. re-enlisted in the regular army and
went to the extreme west to fight Indians, and when his term of service expired
again re-enlisted and remained in the service. In 1878 he was discharged on
account of disability, and is now an inmate of the Disabled Soldier's Home, at
Dayton, Ohio. From his letters to me he seems the same jolly, good natured hero
as of old. I hope to see him before many months, for the first time since he
shook me by the hand and passed in and out of his tunnel from the Marine
Hospital and to freedom.
The two cousins Buck, David and Eli S., I last saw top of
some corn in an army wagon I jumped from when I first encountered the 9th Mich.
Cavalry. Little thought that would be the last time I should see them. Their
command belonged to the Eastern Army in the region of the Potomac, and when
communication was opened at Savannah they were sent there on transports. I
afterward received letters from both of them, and David's picture; also his
wife's whom he had just married. David's picture is reproduced in this book and
I must say hardly does him justice as he was a good looking and active fellow.
Presume Eli is a farmer if alive, and "Dave" probably preaching.
"Limber Jim," who was instrumental in putting down
the raiders at Andersonville, was until recently a resident of Joliet,
Illinois. He died last winter, in 1880, and it is said his health was always
poor after his terrible summer of 1864. He was a hero in every sense of the
word, and if our government did not amply repay him for valiant service done
while a prisoner of war, then it is at fault.
Sergt. Winn of the 100th Ohio, who befriended me at
Savannah, is, I think, a citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a prosperous man. Any
way, he was in 1870 or thereabouts. Was an upright man and good fellow.
Every one knows the fate of Capt. Wirtz, our prison commander
at Andersonville, who was hung at Washington, D. C, in 1866, for his treatment
of us Union prisoners of war. It was a righteous judgment, still I think there
are others who deserved hanging fully as much. He was but the willing tool of
those higher in command. Those who put him there knew his brutal disposition,
and should have suffered the same disposition made of him. Although, I believe
at this late day those who were in command and authority over Capt. Wirtz have
successfully thrown the blame on his shoulders, it does not excuse them in the
least so far as I am concerned. They are just as much to blame that thirteen
thousand men died in a few months at that worst place the world has ever seen,
as Capt. Wirtz, and should have suffered accordingly. I don't blame any of them
for being rebels if they thought it right, but I do their inhuman treatment of
prisoners of war.
Hub Dakin is now a resident of Dansville, Mich,, the same
village in which lives Wm. B. Rowe. He has been more or less disabled since the
war, and I believe is now trying to get a pension from the government for
disability contracted while in prison. It is very difficult for ex-prisoners of
war to get pensions, owing to the almost impossibility of getting sufficient
evidence. The existing pension laws require that an officer of the service
shall have knowledge of the origin of disease, or else two comrades who may be
enlisted men. At this late day it is impossible to remember with accuracy
sufficient to come up to the requirements of the law. There is no doubt that
all were more or less disabled, and the mere fact of their having spent the
summer in Andersonville, should be evidence enough to procure assistance from
the government.
And now a closing chapter in regard to myself. As soon as Savannah
was occupied by our troops and communications opened with the North, a furlough
was made out by Capt. Johnson, of our company, and signed by Assistant Surgeon
Young, and then by Col. Acker. I then took the furlough to Gen. Kilpatrick,
which he signed, and also endorsed on the back to the effect that he hoped Gen.
Sherman would also sign and send me North. From Gen. Kilpatrick's head quarters
I went to see Gen. Sherman at Savannah and was ushered into his presence. The
Gen. looked the paper over and then said no men were being sent home now and no
furloughs granted for any cause. If I was permanently disabled I could be sent
to Northern hospitals, or if I had been an exchanged prisoner of war, could be
sent North, but there was no provision made for escaped prisoners of war.
Encouraged me with the hope, however, that the war was nearly over and it could
not be long before we Would all go home. Gave me a paper releasing me from all
duty until such time as I saw fit to do duty, and said the first furlough
granted should be mine, and he would retain it and send to me as soon as
possible. Cannot say that I was very sadly disappointed, as I was having a good
time with the company, and regaining my health and getting better every day,
with the exception of my leg, which still troubled me. stayed with the company
until Lee surrendered, Lincoln assassinated and all the fighting over and then
leaving Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in April, went to my home in Michigan. In
a few weeks was followed by the regiment, when we were all mustered out of the
service. As had been reported to me at the regiment, I had been regarded as
dead, and funeral sermon preached.
It was my sad duty to call upon the relatives of quite a
number who died in Andersonville, among whom were those of Dr. Lewis, John
McGuire and Jimmy Devers. The relics which had been entrusted to my keeping
were all lost with two exceptions, and through no fault of mine. At the time of
my severe sickness when first taken to Savannah, and when I was helpless as a child,
the things drifted away from me some way, and were lost. But for the fact that
Battese had two of my diary books and Sergt. Winn the other, they also would
have been lost.
I hope that this Diary may prove successful in its mission
of truly portraying the scenes at Andersonville and elsewhere during the time
of my imprisonment, and if so, the object of its author shall have been
accomplished.
Yours Very
Respectfully,
JOHN L. RANSOM,
Late 1st Sergt. Co. A,
9th Mich. Cav.
SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p.
160-4
